Liberal MP confirms meeting far right activist

FEDERAL Liberal MP Ian Goodenough has confirmed he and colleague Andrew Hastie met with far right activist Neil Erikson at a 2018 rally in support of white South African farmers.

But Mr Hastie, the Liberal MP for Canning and chair of the parliament’s intelligence and security committee, has rejected having met Mr Erikson, telling reporters on Tuesday: “I don’t answer defamatory questions and I won’t get involved.”

Mr Erikson has a history of convictions and fines over inciting contempt and ridicule of Muslims and has been banned from Twitter and Facebook.

Mr Goodenough told The Guardian that he and Mr Hastie had a brief meeting with Mr Erikson at the rally at Forrest Chase in Perth in April 2018.

“We were at a rally for the South African migrants and he came up and there was a conversation,” Mr Goodenough said.

“It was a very brief meeting from what I saw, two to three minutes.”

The MP for Moore said he did not know the identity of the man at the time until it was recently pointed out by one of his staffers.

A photo posted on Mr Hastie’s Facebook page shows him attending the rally with Mr Goodenough.